Endless iCloud problems

First up I had so many problems syncing my music playlists on the music app. iCloud kept interfering in it and the settings keep mysteriously changing on their own. Im a DJ and music therapist and I lost a lot of my work with playlists disappearing from my phone and computer was very upsetting. Eventually after many wasted hours of phone calls with apple "care" I worked out the settings on my own and its mostly working but still glitchy.


Secondly, iCloud has been taking my files off my computer desktop, deleting them from there and putting them in the icloud. These settings were changed again in updates and without my knowledge or approval and for the last few days I can't even open my own files they suddenly have a little cloud with an arrow and when I try to open it says "Your device couldn’t connect to the server. There may be a problem with the server or network.".


I am now speaking to the 7th adviser after nearly 5 hours of wasted time and no answers.


Seems to me that apple is being sneaky by changing settings without knowledge and putting everything in the icloud and then sending messages asking to pay more for storage.


Apples inability to resolve this is very alarming and I will not be using iCloud any more, hoping I can resolve this and get my data back on my computer.

MacBook Pro 15″, macOS 10.13

Posted on Feb 29, 2024 3:31 PM

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Posted on Feb 29, 2024 4:48 PM

Apple has no access to your devices or settings.


Anything that you sync using iCloud Drive, and desktop and documents if enabled, remains on your computer unless you elect to optimize files. If you optimize, your least accessed files may be offloaded to iCloud only should space become needed on your device. If you turn off desktop and documents at any point, then all desktop and documents files are offloaded to the cloud (you can simply move those from iCloud Drive onto the "new" desktop and/or documents.


Music playlists sync through a subscription to Apple Music or iTunes Match. Syncing is automatic on all synced devices.

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Feb 29, 2024 4:48 PM in response to Gulwan

Apple has no access to your devices or settings.


Anything that you sync using iCloud Drive, and desktop and documents if enabled, remains on your computer unless you elect to optimize files. If you optimize, your least accessed files may be offloaded to iCloud only should space become needed on your device. If you turn off desktop and documents at any point, then all desktop and documents files are offloaded to the cloud (you can simply move those from iCloud Drive onto the "new" desktop and/or documents.


Music playlists sync through a subscription to Apple Music or iTunes Match. Syncing is automatic on all synced devices.

Feb 29, 2024 7:42 PM in response to Gulwan

You may have turned on some iCloud settings when you updated.


My computer has over 500GB free space yet everything, even files i have created on my laptop has been taken off my laptop and put onto the icloud and now it says there is a server problem and I cant download it

That's not how iCloud works by default. Everything remains on your Mac. If you enable optimization, you'll find some files offloaded, but not all.


my music playlists are my own recordings and things I have manually put on my computer, i dont have an apple music subscription, icloud keeps messing with my own files adn the whole system is set up to wedge you into getting an apple music subscrition


It's unclear what you mean by iCloud in this instance. You cannot sync music or playlists using iCloud if you do not subscribe to Apple Music or iTunes Match. Syncing playlists would only happen through a direct connection. If you are storing some music in iCloud (your own files), those are accessible as with any file. But, you couldn't;t make a playlist of those in iCloud.

Feb 29, 2024 4:54 PM in response to muguy

I wish that were true, cause the settings have changed when i have updated my OS.


My computer has over 500GB free space yet everything, even files i have created on my laptop has been taken off my laptop and put onto the icloud and now it says there is a server problem and I cant download it


my music playlists are my own recordings and things I have manually put on my computer, i dont have an apple music subscription, icloud keeps messing with my own files adn the whole system is set up to wedge you into getting an apple music subscrition

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Endless iCloud problems

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